THE LATEST ON ACTA: An official at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office tells Morning Tech that U.S. negotiators expect to release a summary of the Lucerne talks at the end of this week’s round – a move that should satisfy critics who have charged ACTA has been negotiated too secretly.

BUT THE OFFICIAL declined to say whether the office would release a full-text version of ACTA at the week’s end. Stay tuned.

I-T’S THE TALK OF THE TOWN – OMB’s announcement yesterday that it will halt millions of dollars’ worth of financial management system upgrades across the government is raising alarms among IT contractor groups that dozens of agencies maybe left without the technology to run their budget and track their financial status. More below.

A CLOSER LOOK AT OMB’S IT REVIEW – In Orszag’s memo, all financial system upgrades with more than $20 million in planned spending shall be halted, pending agency review. “That’s a stop work order on everything,” says Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president of the Professional Services Council. “It’s highly unusual to just stop stuff while you evaluate…Without knowing there’s a problem, we think that needs a little more justification.”

BUT CIO VIVEK KUNDRA tells Morning Tech there's a reason for it: OMB views this process as one of many ways to help the feds trim spending. "One of the key levers” in the budget process is “to make sure that IT dollars produce dividends," he says, adding that OMB will produce a more comprehensive IT Dashboard as part of its initial, 30-day review of federal IT spending.

Tom Chen, a partner at Haynes and Boone in Irvine, Calif., whose clients include Ebay and PayPal, says the decision is a let-down because it doesn't issue any firm guidelines for determining if non-physical processes, like software or tax strategies, are patentable. “We waited so long for this…and all it does is basically leave things with the status quo,” says Chen. http://nyti.ms/aumowG

BOND ON CYBERSECURITY – An aide to Republican Sen. Kit Bond tells Morning Tech the senator is lukewarm about the two cybersecurity bills his Democratic colleagues are pursuing. “Bond -- and I would think many members of Congress - has concerns about giving more responsibility to the Department of Homeland Security at a time when it is already overburdened,” the aide says, referencing the position that would be created by the Lieberman-Collins-Carper cybersecurity bill.

The aide also argues that the proposed cyber czar position within the White House could “impede congressional oversight,” especially if he or she claims executive privilege. Both Senate bills pending floor action would create such a post.

BOND'S STAKE: He, along with Orrin Hatch, is authoring his own cybersecurity bill.

SCOTUS HEARINGS, IN 140 CHARACTERS OR LESS – Head over to C-SPAN’s new Twitter list later today to read how members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are reacting to Elena Kagan’s confirmation proceedings. http://bit.ly/962ocN.

AND WATCH FOR FRANKEN, in particular, to question Kagan this week about legal disputes that may arise from the NBC-Comcast merger. The FCC’s review of the deal remains paused as the two companies prepare and submit additional documents.

COPPA BACK ON RADAR -- It’s becoming increasingly clear that Mark Pryor, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance, is eyeing COPPA for possible revision. Thursday marks the second time in about three months that the senator plans to address children and online protection, though the stated title of this week’s meeting doesn’t mention the law explicitly. The subcommittee’s last foray in April began with Jay Rockefeller slamming Google and Apple for their absence.

GAO FAULTS VET AFFAIRS ON IT – A somewhat overlooked GAO report on Monday seemed to excoriate the Department of Veterans Affairs for mismanaging HealthVet, an effort to upgrade the IT programs used in VA hospitals. According to the GAO, “After spending an estimated $127 million over 9 years on its outpatient scheduling system project, VA has not implemented any of the planned system's capabilities and is essentially starting over.” Read the full report here: http://bit.ly/cO4ZCD

BUILDERS AND PLUMBERS FOR…COPYRIGHT? –Two California labor unions sent letters asking Henry Waxman to further investigate ways to better enforce copyright protection on the Internet now that the White House’s intellectual property enforcement recommendations have been released.

Specifically, the unions say Internet-based companies like Google give away content that consumers would otherwise buy. “In Los Angeles and beyond the exploitation of our work is translating into job losses and undermining the regional economy,” said the letters, signed by the international Union of Painters & Allied Trades and the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry.

The construction and plumbing industries are unlikely copyright advocates, but the letters are noteworthy because it's the first time labor unions have weighed in on the issue.

“Given that this exploitive business model implicated important copyright principles, significant job losses and the undermining of a major sector of the U.S. economy, we believe that this is the type of issue that the Energy and Commerce Committee ought to be investigating, including holding hearings, considering legislative and regulatory remedies and holding those corporations exploiting our work accountable,” the letters said.

WAPO: CELL PHONE INDUSTRY ATTACKS SF – By Cecilia Kang: “San Francisco, a city that banned the plastic bag, now has waded into the muddy territory of cellphone radiation, setting off a call to arms in the $153 billion wireless industry. … The law, which goes into effect early next year, didn't mention the word, but it was all about one thing: cancer, and whether cellphones cause it. The cellphone industry answered with its own C-word -- cancel. After the vote, the CTIA wireless trade group called off its fall show, scheduled for San Francisco.” http://bit.ly/9pbH0m

SCOTUS RELAXES PATENT LIMITS – Writes Peter Whoriskey: “The Supreme Court on Monday loosened the limits on the kinds of inventions that are eligible for patent protection in a case that was closely watched for its impacts on innovation. … ‘This age puts the possibility of innovation in the hands of more people and raises new difficulties for patent law,’ Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the court's opinion. ‘The patent law faces a great challenge in striking the balance between protecting inventors and not granting monopolies over procedures that others would discover by independent, creative application of general principles. Nothing in this opinion should be read to take a position on where that balance ought to be struck.’” http://bit.ly/c63mMt

BLOOMBERG: GOOGLE TO ADJUST CHINA STRATEGY – No longer can the search engine re-direct Chinese users, reports Brian Womack and Mark Lee: “’It’s clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable,’ Google said in a blog posting today. ‘Without an ICP license, we can’t operate a commercial website like Google.cn--so Google would effectively go dark in China.’ … The shift led to a loss of market share in China for the Mountain View, California-based company, according to data from research firm Analysys International.” http://bit.ly/bLSdzt

CNET: “ALLEGED RUSSIAN AGENTS USED HIGH-TECH TRICKS” – From Declan McCullagh: “A clandestine network of Russian spies in the United States used private Wi-Fi networks, flash memory sticks, and text messages concealed in graphical images to exchange information, federal prosecutors said Monday. … The court papers made public on Monday include details of 21st century spycraft more high-tech than anything Jason Bourne knew about: defendant Anna Chapman allegedly brought her laptop to a coffee shop on 47th Street in Manhattan in January and transferred data with a Russian government official who drove by in a minivan but never entered the store.” http://bit.ly/chIotq